Afraid to Speak In Seattle

Author Keeanga-Yahmatta Taylor is an an assistant professor of African-American studies at Princeton, and a longtime activist. She’s also a friend of local Seattle teacher and activist Jesse Hagopian, who was slated to introduce Taylor at Town Hall.

Taylor, who was touring in support of her book From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, also cancelled an appearance at UC Berkeley that was to take place later in the week. More than 50 threatening emails flooded her inbox just last week. Rows upon rows of targeted violence and details of murder sat on her computer’s illuminated screen. This came after Fox News posted her Hampshire College commencement speech, identifying it as an “Anti-POTUS tirade.”

Taylor released a statement that day, including content from the emails.

“I have been repeatedly called ‘nigger,’ ‘bitch,’ ‘cunt,’ ‘dyke,’ ‘she-male,’ and ‘coon’ — a clear reminder that racial violence is closely aligned with gender and sexual violence,” Taylor wrote. “I have been threatened with lynching and having the bullet from a .44 Magnum put in my head.”